The Broken Key (02) - Hunter of the Horde (51 page)

“I won’t go far,” he said. “Just into the fringe of the forest.”

“Alright,” replied Chyfe. “Holler if you need help.” Riyan gave him a grin and set off for the forest. After months of training with a sword, it felt good to once again have a sling in hand. It had been thoughtful of Seth to get him one, he hadn’t even thought about it.

From the pouch hanging on his hip, he removed one of the iron bullets and placed it in the sling’s cup. He let the sling hang loosely in his hand as he approached the forest.

Ever so quietly, he made his way through the trees. Eyes and ears alert for anything that would reveal the presence of a small animal.

Then motion caught his eye. Through the trees ahead of him he saw a branch move in a way that could not have been caused by the wind. Stepping even more carefully, he made his way toward the branch that had moved. His eyes strained to see what had caused the movement, the sling continued hanging limp at his side.

A rustle of leaves from a bush adjacent to the limb was immediately followed by a flash of brown as a small animal left the bush and scurried across a fallen limb. Riyan grinned and continued moving closer.

The animal, a little bigger than the squirrels that inhabited the woods near his home, suddenly stopped and raised its head. Riyan froze as the animal looked in his direction.

For a brief moment their eyes locked, then the animal scurried further along the limb before coming to another stop.

Once the creature’s eyes left his, Riyan took another step closer. If he wasn’t careful, he would scare the animal away. Careful step after careful step, he moved ever closer to the animal. When he figured to be close enough to be able to hit it with his sling, he came to a stop.

The animal again looked in his direction. He waited patiently until it turned its head and looked in the other direction. Then he raised his sling above his head…

RRRaaaaaahhhhh!

An incredibly loud roar came from directly behind him, shattering the silence. Both he and the animal jumped a foot off the ground. The animal raced off for dear life while Riyan turned to find Bart standing there with a smile on his face. A hundred feet behind his friend he could see the others of Bart’s group standing there. Seth and Soth were laughing hard.

“What did you do that for?” demanded Riyan. Aside from chasing off his dinner, Bart had probably taken five years off his life with that scare.

“Sorry, man,” Bart replied with a chuckle. “I couldn’t help myself.” Riyan glanced back to where the animal had been on the fallen limb but it was gone.

“I almost had him.”

“We have plenty of rations,” Bart stated.

“Not the same,” countered Riyan. “Not the same at all.” Bart patted him on the back. “I really am sorry,” he asserted.

Riyan glanced to his face and saw the amusement dancing in his eyes. “I’m sure you are,” he said.

Seth, Soth, and Chad departed for the house they were using as a base of operations while on the island. “Good one Bart!” Chad hollered before he left.

“Come on,” Bart said. “Let’s get back before it gets dark.” Disappointed at losing the chance for fresh meat, Riyan accompanied Bart back to the house. Before they made it back, Riyan had come to the conclusion that he owed Bart one. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but definitely at some point he planned to return the favor. Having made the decision for a little payback mollified him somewhat and he was able to let go of the ill will feelings he had been having.

As they neared the door to the house, he could hear Seth’s voice coming from within.

“You should have seen him jump.” Which was followed by a round of laughter. Then when he entered the house, everyone turned amused eyes to him and attempted to stifle their laughter.

“Yes, yes,” Riyan said. “It was all very funny.” At which point they broke into laughter again. Riyan sighed and figured it was going to be a rather long night. He gave Bart a glare before Kevik handed him some dried beef.

Once night had fallen, they gathered around the fireplace. Outside was dark, with intermittent moonlight coming through the clouds. The fire was keeping the worst of the chill at bay. But if you moved too far from its warmth, the cold quickly sapped the warmth from you.

Bart was telling Riyan’s group of the place they had found. “It wasn’t much really,” he explained. “Just half a dozen buildings, one was two stories tall.”

“Most of it had collapsed,” added Chad.

“That’s right,” agreed Bart. “When we saw the double headed falcon, I thought you might want to know.”

“I did and thank you,” replied Riyan. “I just wish we could have found something too.”

“Tomorrow will probably be your day,” Bart said.

“Think we need to post a watch through the night?” asked Chad.

Bart nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “This island gives me a bad feeling.”

“I’ve felt it too,” added Kevik.

Chyfe went to one of the windows. They had secured extra blankets and tunics they had brought with them across the three window frames in an attempt to keep the cold out.

He pulled back the blanket covering the one overlooking the beach area and looked out.

“See anything?” Soth asked.

“No,” he replied. He spent a minute or so looking out at the darkness beyond until the cold coming in through the window grew to be more than he could stand. Then he replaced the blanket back to its previous position before returning to the others.

“I’ll take first watch,” offered Riyan. “The rest of you may as well get some sleep.

We need to make an early start tomorrow, it’s our last full day before the Water Dancer returns.”

After setting up a watch schedule, the others laid out their bedrolls near the fireplace.

Most of them were able to get to sleep in a fairly short time, for the rest, it took a little bit longer.

Throughout the night, those on watch kept the fire going and would occasionally glance outside through one of the windows. By the time morning’s first light began to lighten the sky, nothing out of the ordinary had developed.

Chyfe had the last watch and woke everyone as soon as he saw dawn approaching.

While the others were getting ready, he opened the front door and looked outside. A blast of cold air entered through the doorway and Bart yelled, “Shut that door!” The cloud cover had increased overnight. There was still a strip of blue to the south, but it was quickly disappearing. It looked as if another storm was on the way. Closing the door, he turned to the others, “Storm’s coming.”

“That’s great,” moaned Chad. “There’s nothing like mucking around a forest in a cold downpour.”

“Might not rain,” Seth said.

“You think so?” asked Chad hopefully.

Seth nodded. “It might snow instead,” he replied.

“It’s cold enough,” agreed Soth.

“Well,” Chad said, “that’s not so bad.”

Riyan came over to Chyfe and asked, “Does it snow much around here?” Chyfe shrugged. “Some. But I’ve never known it to dump a lot at any one time.”

“That’s good to hear,” commented Chad.

Once they had eaten and taken care of nature’s business, dawn had fully arrived. If the clouds hadn’t grown thicker, the sun would be visible by now. Bart suggested they break into the same two groups as the day before and each begin where they had left off.

Everyone carried a pack. Riyan’s still contained the two segments of the key while Kevik continued hauling the unidentified magical items. The others brought some food and other items they might need should they find what they were looking for such as rope, lanterns, oil,
etc.
The remainder of their gear they left in the house.

“All we need to worry about today is locating the columns,” Riyan said. “Move fast and don’t spend time satisfying curiosity.”

“I agree,” Bart said. He glanced to his group and said, “Shall we?” Chad nodded. “Let’s go.”

The two groups each headed out and moved in the direction they felt would bring them back to the area where they had ended yesterday.

As Riyan’s group had the furthest to go, it took them close to an hour before they reached their starting point. “Fast and quick,” Riyan told the others. “We don’t want them to find it first.”

“Why?” asked Kevik.

“Bragging rights of course,” Chyfe replied. “You stay in the middle again and I’ll take up the rear.” Kevik nodded and they headed out.

Riyan set a quick pace. Whenever they came across remnants of the ancient civilization, they gave it just a cursory glance before continuing on. Riyan wasn’t about to let Bart find the three columned area first.

They kept primarily to the middle of the island and crisscrossed it as they worked their way further south. During their third hour of searching, they came across an area where there were a greater number of ruins; walls, statues, even a fountain. Riyan’s mood picked up when he saw a column rising from within a copse of trees. It was the first column his group had come across. Excited by the discovery, he pressed on. The trees began to thin as the number of ruins increased.

The ruins continued to increase in density as they progressed further south with more buildings, columns, and broken walls dotting the landscape. There were collapsed structures that had at one time boasted several columns, but they were all broken or fallen over.

“We must be close,” Riyan finally said.

“This could have been the heart of a city,” commented Kevik. “The architecture here is different than that at Algoth.”

Riyan nodded. “I noticed that too.”

“Algoth?” asked Chyfe.

“Just a place we visited before joining the Guild,” he replied.

“Look!” Kevik said, pointing off to a structure that still held a portion of its second floor.

Turning to look, Riyan could see where a portion of the side wall had collapsed. But engraved in the section that still stood, was the double headed falcon.

“Should we tell Bart?” asked Kevik.

“No,” replied Riyan. “Let’s wait until we find what we’re looking for.” Moving out, they resumed their search for the three columns. Ten minutes later, Riyan came to a stop when he saw three columns rising near a large pile of what at one time must have been a sizable building.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed as he raced forward. The others followed and they quickly reached the site of the three columns.

Riyan scanned the area but couldn’t see the steps leading down the old man had described. “Look around,” he told the others. “It has to be here somewhere.”

“I don’t think so,” Kevik replied.

Coming to a stop, Riyan turned to him and asked, “What do you mean?” Kevik gestured to the surrounding area. “Where’s the column that looked like it had been smashed by a giant’s club?”

Riyan and Chyfe quickly glanced about the area and saw that he was right. There was no such column there.

“And look,” Kevik said as he pointed further ahead. When Riyan turned to look, he saw many sets of columns in amongst the trees. Some were solitary while other groups held three, four, and sometimes more.

“Should we split up?” suggested Chyfe. “Looks like there may be more than one trio of columns out there.”

Riyan shook his head. “No. We stay together.” He turned his gaze to Chyfe then said,

“Less chance of something bad happening.”

Chyfe nodded. “Alright.”

Moving out, Riyan began working his way from one set of three columns to the next.

Each time, he would search for the fourth that looked to be smashed by a giant’s club.

When he failed to find it, he would press on to the next.

Suddenly, Kevik stopped and got a faraway look in his eyes. Chyfe almost walked into him before he realized what was happening. “Riyan!” he hollered quietly. When Riyan turned around, he gestured to the immobile Kevik. “I think Bart’s talking to him again.”

Fear came over Riyan. Fear that Bart had found the columns first. Returning to the other two, he waited with Chyfe until Kevik returned to them.

Kevik’s eyes regained their focus and he turned toward Riyan. “Bart says he’s found it,” he relayed.

“Is he positive?” Riyan asked. He had been positive too only to be proven wrong.

“Did he find the fourth column?” asked Chyfe. He and Riyan waited for Bart’s reply.

“Just a minute,” replied Kevik. He again got the far away look as he began communicating with Bart once more. When he came back to them, he started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Riyan asked.

Kevik indicated the area behind them. “He’s not too far behind us,” he explained.

“Right now he’s back at the three columns we found earlier.” Relief washed over Riyan. Still, it would have been better if he had actually found it.

“They’re moving to catch up with us,” Kevik told them.

“Let’s not wait for them,” Riyan said. “We’ll keep looking until they reach us.” Not waiting for a reply, he headed out at a very brisk pace that the other two had to hurry to keep up with. It was still possible for him to locate the area before Bart and his group joined them. Bragging rights was still a possibility. Crisscrossing the ruins, he worked his way from one set of three columns to the next.

Behind him he heard Kevik say, “They’ll never catch us at the pace your setting.”

“I think that’s the idea,” Chyfe replied for him. Indeed, that was precisely the idea.

After checking his fifth set of columns since receiving the message from Bart, the trees began to thin even further. The area opened up more and more, until the forest fell away completely except for a few lone trees dotting the ruins here and there.

The buildings they saw now were in better shape than those they had come across earlier. They still showed the ravages of time, but there were more that had sections standing erect. Riyan’s hope of finding the three columns before Bart joined up with him increased. If where they needed to find the final segments of the key was anywhere on this island, it would most likely be here.

Then from behind him Chyfe said, “I see them.”

Glancing back, Riyan was all excited to find the columns. Instead, he saw Bart and his group moving through the trees. They were running to catch up with them.